There was a revealing exchange yesterday between CNN's "media critic" Brian Stelter and the brilliant Russian-born The New Yorker staff writer Masha Gessen while discussing Russian state media's propaganda about their war against Ukraine, and how U.S. media is amplifying their lies using their old "both sides" paradigm. Courtesy of Crooks & Liars TV, here's an excerpt of the exchange after Stelter has just finished repeating the Russian propaganda:
"GESSEN: Brian, what we are doing right now is exactly what Russian propagandists want you to do. Which is amplifying ridiculous messages. Do you not understand?
STELTER: Tell me more.
GESSEN: You know, everything that we hear from Russian official sources, everything that is on Russian TV is a lie, right? This has been documented over and over again. I really don't see why we would go on broadly watched CNN program and try to engage with these lies. (our emphasis)
Then Stelter attempts to school Gessen in both sides journalism 101, and she's not having it:
STELTER: I think that's really, really interesting and it's exactly what news rooms are wrestling with, including the CNNs of the world, where, you know, think about journalism school 101, right, Masha, you are taught to present both sides, ask for comment, try to be very careful not to jump to conclusions, and yet in this particular situation, in a 21st century information war, where propaganda seems to win the day, some of those journalism 101 rules may have to be revisited. What would you say?
We'd say you're about to get hit with a haymaker dude:
GESSEN: I would say that those are not journalism 101 rules. I think journalism 101 rules are to begin with evaluating your sources and you don't go back over and over again to somebody who has been lying to you.
That is the classic both sidism and classic false equivalency. There is no equivalence between the Ukrainian information sources and Russian information sources. The Ukrainian information sources by and large in the more than 50 days this have war have proven to be largely reliable.
Russia information sources over more than 50 days this have war, and preceding it have proven to be profoundly consistently false. Setting them side-by-side is completely irresponsible. This is not journalism 101, it's the exact opposite of it." (our emphasis)
Would that our broken Beltway media follow Gessen's critique and be unwilling to share Russian state propaganda, if only to "analyze" it.
BONUS: Examples of malpractice abound --
On Jan. 6 Rick Scott endorsed the coup and voted to overturn the election
— Matt Negrin, HOST OF HARDBALL AT 7PM ON MSNBC (@MattNegrin) April 18, 2022
Today the “Democracy Dies in Darkness” paper profiles him as a GOP hero and doesn’t mention his coup vote once. It’s about how he wakes up at 4:30am and works really hard
The media is rooting for fascism pic.twitter.com/sXOnI72mI3
A new high in amoral political analysis. https://t.co/vFaFJmIlCN
— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) April 18, 2022
(illustration: Outside The Beltway)
